anderswolleck

I love talking to guys like Paul Lieberstein. Currently he is a writer/producer/actor on the hit NBC sitcom The Office. As Toby, the laconic and divorced human resources director of Dunder Mifflin he is constantly butting heads with the idiotic Dunder Mifflin Regional Manager Michael Scott [played by Steve Carell]. Lieberstein is already responsible for many of the series best episodes such as Dwight's Speech which includes Dwights Hitleresque rant and The Client where the office workers have a table read of Michaels secret screenplay. But I first saw Liebersteins name as a writer/producer on the primetime cartoon series King of the Hill which is one of the greatest shows ever on television.

The Office third season premieres on September 21

Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you shooting today?

Paul Lieberstein: Conan OBrien was shooting a bit for the Emmys where he visits all the shows so we did that today.

DRE: Did you produce and help write the bit?

Paul: We did help write the bit so he had his writers there and our writers there. I had fun working with the other writers.

DRE: But youre not in it?

Paul: No, I wasnt.

DRE: When do you start production on the third season of The Office?

Paul: We started just a few weeks ago.

DRE: Hows it going?

Paul: Going great so far, other than being incredibly busy already. We got underwater so fast. Thats how its going to be when you have to do 14 episodes in 14 weeks. Its a big deal for us.

DRE: Is that because Steve [Carell] has another movie to do?

Paul: Exactly.

DRE: Whats his problem?

Paul: Hes too funny is his problem.

DRE: Actually Seth Rogen [of The 40 Year Old Virgin] said that Steve is not very funny when hes not in a scene. Is that true?

Paul: He doesnt do tons of bits like some people but if youre talking to him and he feels like it, hes plenty funny. I think he just gets very professional and starts thinking about his character. Hes got his method which certainly works.

DRE: How many episodes are you writing for this set of 14?

Paul: Just one or two. Were going to do one of mine next week and we have the first seven written. So we have to write the next seven and I may or may not do another one in that.

DRE: What is your episode about?

Paul: Dwight [played by Rainn Wilson] sensing an opportunity, decides that this might be the time where he makes his play to run the branch.

DRE: When you write your episodes, does Toby get a bigger part?

Paul: No, much smaller. I really give myself just one line.

DRE: Would it be embarrassing to say lets make this episode all about Toby?

Paul: A little bit. I guess my mind jumps to other people first. As an actor, which is just a very small percentage of me, I dont feel Toby while Im writing. Its the hardest of the characters to access.

DRE: Is Dwight one of the best characters to write for?

Paul: Yeah, when Michael and Dwight are in the same scene together, I think the show has a comic intensity thats not rivaled very much.

DRE: By the second season, The Office became one of the best shows on television right now. Every episode is hysterical. Was there a great fear of being cancelled before The 40 Year Old Virgin came out?

Paul: I think that it went past fear into possibly an expectation. I honestly felt more delighted that we were getting to do another six episodes of the highest quality thing I ever worked on. It was like a treat and that America was getting it at all was awesome.

DRE: The show is considered a hit and I just think that it is so bizarre that ten or 11 million people watching is whats considered a hit nowadays. Is that just the way television is now?

Paul: For a show thats building, ten or 11 is a beginning but I think we have to become a bigger show. Its going to have to eventually get bigger, although we have a very strong demographic with a very high income. TV has become so niche friendly now. The fact that Battlestar Galactica, which is so well done, can survive on The SciFi Channel just goes to show that audiences will find what they want to watch.

DRE: Is the writers room on The Office much different than the other shows youve been on?

Paul: It is one of the most pleasant writers rooms Ive ever been in. It is so much fun. Everybody likes everybody, everybody is friends, theres no politics and that is unusual on a set. So its a little bit like a cocktail party every day.

DRE: Its also unusual to have so many people that have big parts on the show be writers like you, BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling.

Paul: Yeah, theres often this wall between the writers and the actors on shows where you wont talk about anything creative with an actor. So youll have these polite conversations but its like stepping on someones toes. But here, that walls been broken down completely though once in a while some toes get stepped on but on the flipside the creative energy is really making our show better.

DRE: Didnt BJ write an episode around the temp?

Paul: The Fire episode. Yeah, hes the fire guy. It did not come from him trying to promote his character. He had an idea about a fire drill. In the beginning we experimented in trying to tell that without a story at all and then the vignette started to build and this was one that came naturally out of it and took over. You cant accuse him of self-promotion there.

DRE: Toby and Michael had a real moment during the casino episode.

Paul: Yeah, things with Steve are a little bit of a challenge because hes so quick. When I give him anything, he then makes fun of me. If I tilt my head a weird way or arrange my lips, he will then do the same thing mocking me. Theres no way I can keep up with that. Very early on in the first season, Steve said that he discovered this giant amount of hate towards Toby just swelling up inside of him and he just started to feed on it as he would watch me. He taps into that very quickly for all our scenes and its a lot of fun.

DRE: In the casino episode Michael went all in on the first in a game of Texas hold 'em and Toby had a pretty darn good hand, two Jacks, but its not even two kings or two aces.

Paul: Its pretty clear that Michael was bluffing. It was a ridiculous thing to do. There was a very subtle little bit there because Toby is just willing to call him out. There was another scene with a suggestion box meeting. One of suggestions was You have bad breath and Michael said that could be for anyone and Toby said Arent these suggestions for you? That was past anything Toby had done before in terms of trying to insult Michael. It was a lot of fun saying that one little line.

DRE: I watched all three Office webisodes today. How do you like doing those?

Paul: Mike Schur and I wrote the webisodes and it was fun writing for the other characters. If we write a storyline thats just Kevin and Angela, it usually ends up on the cutting room floor. We come out with episodes are 36 minutes long and we have to take it down to 20 minutes. So its treat to have those storylines go on the internet.

DRE: Another television character I think you can compare Michael Scott to is Peggy Hill on King of the Hill which you also worked on.

Paul: Ive never heard that comparison. Thats interesting.

DRE: I spoke to Stephen Root [voice of Bill Dauterive] and I brought up how Hank Hill is getting more intolerant and he said and Peggys become more of a dick.

Paul: I really liked writing for Peggy too. She has a complete lack of awareness of the stuff she was doing. She assumed greatness the way that Michael Scott assumes friendship and humor.

DRE: What did you like about writing Peggy Hill so much?

Paul: I liked how she adjusted reality to fit her needs. Thats a great trait in a comic character, to see things how they need to see them and then constantly come up against the world because theyre trying to make them see that.

DRE: It makes me wonder what Greg Daniels [executive producer of both shows] is like.

Paul: Theres a piece of Greg in every character we have.

DRE: I assume its Greg that brought you into The Office. Did you first meet Greg on King of the Hill?

Paul: No, Ive known Greg for a very long time. Greg is my brother-in-law. Hes married to my sister Susanne Daniels whos is the president of Lifetime.

DRE: Wow, youll always have work then. Its probably weird for you to talk about Greg, but whats he like?

Paul: It is weird. Gregs amazing. Hes the most brilliant writer Ive ever worked with. His joke ability is as strong as anyones. Hes become a great show runner as well. If you came to set and saw peoples attitude and how things are going, youd know how respected and loved he is around here. Hes grown so much on this show and one of the things hes done is let everyone take the gloves off. We spend an inordinate amount of time teasing each other. He doesnt make every episode feel the same. Thats the real danger for a lot of shows. Writers write a little bit differently and hes willing to take the best of what that writer can do and that makes it a lot more interesting for the audience.

DRE: Is there a specialty that you have in terms we need a certain type of joke here, does Paul have any ideas?

Paul: If they needed a really dark, twisted, suicidal joke they might come to me.

DRE: So youre famous for you dark twisted suicidal storylines?

Paul: I have been pitching them. I like the alternative dark humor.

DRE: At times Michael Scott seems to have real strong flashes of awareness. Are those the suicidal type moments?

Paul: No, I dont think Michael is suicidal at all. I think he loves life and wishes it were better but all his actions have to do with wanting to do more with life and go deeper into denial.

DRE: I think people dont tell Peggy Hill why she is that way because deep down she might be a good person, but Im not too sure about Michael.

Paul: I think Michael has a great heart.

DRE: Really? Thats interesting. I would have thought you felt the opposite.

Paul: I think he intends the best but hes so insecure and misguided. His social skills just never developed. I dont think he ever had a close group of friends in his life. Thats why he needs the office so much. I think he legitimately wants the best for everyone, especially himself. Its the quest for goodness that leads to dark areas.

DRE: I can find almost next to nothing about you on the internet, whered you grow up?

Paul: I grew up in Westport, Connecticut.

DRE: Were you always into comedy?

Paul: I always loved it. My brother and I discovered Steve Martins albums and we would memorize lines and say them back and forth to each other. Comedy was where it was at for us.

DRE: Had you written anything before you got to college?

Paul: I was doing creative writing but it wasnt too much comedy. I actually did my first episode of television in high school. Me and some friends discovered a television studio right in the middle of our high school. It was this multi-camera set up so we wrote and produced a television episode. I dont even remember what it was about. I think it was called Hotel New Jersey. It was a spin-off of Hotel New Hampshire which at the time I hadnt even read so I dont know why I picked that.

DRE: I read that you went to Hamilton College in New York.

Paul: Right but I didnt write anything at Hamilton College. I got completely sidetracked. It was very conservative. I got mixed up in that bad element and thought I wanted to be a financier of some kind and most places were smart enough not to hire me. I got a job with Pete Marwick as an auditor. After six months I was ready to get out of there because I was going to either kill them or myself.

DRE: Was it then when you moved to LA?

Paul: No, I stayed for another year and wrote spec scripts, trying to get a job.

DRE: What spec script got you a job?

Paul: I had a writing partner and we wrote a spec Simpsons episode which got us a job on Clarissa Explains it All.

DRE: I loved Clarissa Explains it All.

Paul: We only stayed there a season. We split up and I wrote a few more specs which then got me my next job on Weird Science and a show I cant even remember the name of and then The Naked Truth with Ta Leoni.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck